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Friday, December 30, 2011

I took the time to make a mosaic of all of the quilts I finished this past year. I am always surprised at how much I actually did manage to do in the year aren't you? There were a few more tops too, some are still at the quilter's and some were donated. I didn't count those.

I am looking forward to what 2012 has to bring. I have a few creative adventures in motion with some friends, I have some ideas of my own and there are always those darned UFO's that need to be finished up now aren't there? I keep seeing QAL's that I am interested in but I am thinking that perhaps I need to focus on my quilts in progress. I think this will be my year of "Use what I have". I have so much fabric and I feel a little guilty about that, so I hope to make some kind of a dent in my super stash this year.

I gave away that Christmas tree quilt today. My friend was so surprised and thrilled! I LOVE that kind of a reaction!!! Tomorrow I will be going on a day trip with my sweetie down to Shipshewana. Should be a fun day.

Along with the "Use it up" philosophy I am going to work on being thrifty and saving money this year.

We have some bills to pay off and that is going to be a mail goal for me this year too.

Have you thought about your 2012 resolutions?

I am thinking about mine and will be posting those soon.

I would love to hear what your resolutions/goals will be for the 2012 year. ~XOP~

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Since my machine is back, I seem to be antsy to get some work done. I can't really do anything much until I get Christmas put away, which is going to be done this weekend, but I have been thinking that I could get a few things cut out and ready to sew in the new year.

My friend, Liz, told me that her mom would embroider some blocks for me if I would cut the background fabrics so that was the first one I did today. It should be cute. I am considering pulling the fabrics and cutting those tomorrow. We will see.

Then I decided to look for a pattern that I had bought some pre cuts to make quite some time ago. It said you needed a jelly roll and a charm pack to make a throw size, but actually I am thinking you could just use a JR which is what I did. I am using Merry and Bright by Moda.

As it turns out I had bought the JR and CP of Mix and Mingle to do another one, along with 2 additional yards necessary for the setting triangles and slim inner border and binding but I probably won't be using it so if anyone is interested I will be selling this group and the Tilt-A-Whirl pattern so you can use it to make the same quilt I am going to make. It is my pattern and once I make it I won't need it any more. This is what I will be selling.

I will sell the whole "kit" for $70 plus postage. If you are interested please email me at mamaspark@gmail.com and let me know.

I don't think I mentioned it but I will be going in on January 24th for some surgery so that's the imcentive for getting lots cut so that when I get home I can just sit and sew since I am not supposed to be doing very much for 3 weeks. It is not a big deal, just some urinary stuff from having babies, I'm sure many of you can relate, along with a little bit of shoring things up (damn gravity!) and I should be better than new!!

Also, one of my very best friends had a terrible accident yesterday. She was taking care of her horses and had just finished graining one of them and was opening up the stall when she tripped. The horse had her head in her grain bucket and reacted to the noise behind her by kicking. She kicked my friend twice in the head and once on her thigh. She had a concussion but nothing is broken. She is very sore, disoriented and is experiencing hallucinations. She went to the ER and had an MRI done. They sent her home with pain killers, but she is still in a lot of pain. Please keep her in your prayers! She sure can use all the help she can get!! I really appreciate your kindness. This is a photo of her and I at the lab Christmas party at my boss's house.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

I got my sewing machine back from it's spa trip and she is all ready to be used. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get her out until after the new year. I am planning on putting Christmas away this weekend before I have to go back to work though.

That leaves some time for a few other things. I had made a wonderful Christmas Tree quilt from a Moda Bake Shop tutorial. It was super easy to make and I love how it came out. I had it all trimmed up but needed to put the binding on it. I had that sewn and just needed to do the hand sewing. Now it is all finished and I get to gift it tomorrow to my Zumba instructor!!!

I sure hope she likes it!

I will be back with some more fun stuff tomorrow, so stay tuned!! ~XOP~

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas time has been so hectic this year. Did anyone else feel like that? It seemed to just sneak up on me and I struggled to get it all done. DD2 came home and it has been a whirlwind week to be sure. On Wednesday we went shopping together and finished up some last minute shopping. Then she invited her friend Andy over and we made Christmas cookies. He comes over every Christmas and makes cookies with us.

Then DD1 and her BF made cake pops. I kept bugging for some but she made me wait. When I got up in the morning this was waiting for me.

She is so sweet! Then Jack was showing his Christmas spirit too

My DH wanted to go to Frankenmuth so on Friday we loaded up the car and he, DD2 and I all spent the day in Frankenmuth. One of DD2's friends even met us there for dinner.

Somehow I managed to get everything done, all the food made, the house cleaned up and time spent with my family and suddenly it was Christmas eve day and we headed off to my BIL and SIL's beautiful home to celebrate with DH's family.

We always bring something for the little kids to do and this year we brought 2 gingerbread house kits. Kids and adults alike seemed to have fun.

This year my father and sister joined us. We all had a great time, thanks Mark and Jackie for opening up your beautiful home to us. (I spent 2 hours the night before embroidering a dish towel for her as a thank you for hosting!)

This is my family! Including my dad, sister and DD1's BF.

Christmas morning and we woke up to a visit from Santa, our stockings were full!

I even got 12 new bobbins and a great pair of scissors!

Then we opened gifts and ate great food. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and had time to spend with family and friends too.

OMgosh!! I woke up and went on my email and saw that the tutorial contest over at Pink Chalk Fabrics had narrowed down to 5 finalists in each of three categories and my Chenille Blanket tutorial is in the top 5!!! And guess what? There are prizes!! So here's what I need you to do. Please go and cast your vote for my tutorial over here. Voting goes on until Dec 21st so if you wouldn't mind, please go and cast a vote for mine. This is the photo so you know which one was mine.

I was able to give Holly's mom her quilt last night too! I'm pretty sure she loved it!

Ok, now if you don't mind, please take a minute and go over here and vote!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Oh my goodness did I have a day yesterday! Mamogram in the morning followed by a trip to Checker with Cori. Then she and I went out to lunch. I mentioned to her that I needed to put up the cedar roping and she volunteered her gutter hooks, so I decided to take her up on the offer. So it was kind of warmish here in MI and I thought, "oh, why not put the roping up?" First, find the lights. Check. Then find the red bows, ok off to the store to buy new red bows, check. Ladder to put the roping up, check. I tried to use the screw on hooks but they kept breaking when I lifted them with the pole so I drug out the ladder. I managed to get all the roping up across the front of the garage, then the front porch. At the porch it has to go around a corner and then across the front of the house. I had just put on the bow, still on the ladder and leaned back to check if they were all even and ...POP, pop,pop,pop, WHUMP. All the previous clips snapped and whump the entire length of roping landed on the ground. It would have been funny if it hadn't happened to me!! HAHA, no...it was still funny! So I left it on the ground and thought I would do it when DH gets home tomorrow. So I thought, until the stupid dog ate 3 of the bows.
I can't win for losing!!!
OK, I can hear you all laughing at me now = )

I decided to change my clothes and head to Zumba to exercise off some frustration.
When I got home there was a package waiting for me from Edyta Sitar.
I had done a few things for her and asked her to pick up something for me from Fall market.
I really needed the pick me up so thank you Edyta!!
You are the BEST!!

This is the bag all the goodies were packed in

And a FQ bundle of Natalie Lymer's new line Woodland!!!

It is funny that it was this fabric that arrived. I have had an idea kicking around in my head for a little while.

I am considering doing a stitchery BOM and was thinking about using this fabric.

I have to do some sketching AND stitching before I am ready to share but would anyone be interested in joining in the fun?

I'm going to leave it at that for now.

It will have to wait until after the new year anyway.

I happened to catch my cat Hallie in this sweet pose the other night. I know it is a dark photo but all I could think of was "And to all a good night!"

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Yesterday DH and I went to the Dicken's Festival in Holly MI. We try to go every year. They have some amazing antique shops and we like to spend the day together. First though I need to tell you that I finished the embroidered towels. So if you have not done so then go to the post before this one and enter for a chance to win them.

Here is a peek down the main street

We saw this Dicken's character making these amazing bubbles

Look at who else we found

There was even some ice sculpting

We found some cool antiques too. a GIGANTIC Fostoria punch bowl

A beautiful peacock figure and tapastry

Then I found my usual creepy elves.

And the best two things I found are the Holy water font and the musical angel

So all in all it was a great day spent with DH, getting a few gifts and having a great time! Today I have to finish cleaning and I am *hoping* to get some Christmas stuff put out. I need to order a few more gifts online too. If this isn't enough, my car is making a bad noise and DH thinks we may need to get a new car! I have no idea why, since this one only has 200,000 miles on it! I hope it is something easily fixed with not a lot of money. Anyway, have a great Sunday and don't forget to visit the giveaway post and leave a comment to be entered to win.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

I know I am a little behind in the post of what you need to do to win but first I want to show you what you will be winning.
Two embroidered tea towels.
Hand embroidered by me!
I finally traced them today and will work on them so they are finished by the end of the hop.

Here they are traced and ready to work on

I haven't decided on floss or perle cotton so you will be surprised!

Now on to the fine print.

I would like you to tell me your favorite Christmas cookie.

I would love it if you want to be a follower too.

You MUST comment on this post, although I will consider everyone that has already posted on the post from yesterday too, since I don't want to exclude anyone.

I will ship internationally!!

If you happen to have the recipe for your favorite cookie I would be happy to have that too!!

You can email it to me at mamaspark@gmail.com or link to it in your comment.

Don't forget to click on my Blog Hop Party button too so you can visit everyone that's participating and enter all the wonderful giveaways!

Tula Pink Mini Quilt Swap

A Lovely Year of Finishes

Last Minute Christmas Sampler

100 Quilts For Kids

Glamp Stitchalot

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